In music, a theme is the initial or primary melody. The Encyclopédie Fasquelle (Michel 1958?61) defines a theme as follows:

• "Any element, motif, or small musical piece that has given rise to some variation becomes thereby a theme."

Explanation

After the principal theme is announced, a second melody, sometimes called a countertheme or secondary theme, may play.

In a three-part fugue, the principal theme is announced three times in three different voices -- soprano, alto, bass -- or some variation of that.

In a four-part fugue, the principal theme is announced four times. A motif is a short melodic figure used repeatedly which may be used to construct a theme.

A leitmotif is a motif or theme associated with a person, place, or idea. See also figure and cell.

Thematic changes and processes are often structurally important, and theorists such as Rudolph Reti have created analysis from a purely thematic perspective. Fred Lerdahl describes thematic relations "associational" and thus outside his cognitive based generative theory's scope of analysis.

Music without themes

Music without themes, or without recognizable, repeating, and developing themes is called athematic. Examples include the pre-twelve tone or early atonal works of Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg. Schoenberg (1975): "intoxicated by the enthusiasm of having freed music from the shackles of tonality, I had thought to find further liberty of expression. In fact...I believed that now music could renounce motivic features and remain coherent and comprehensible nevertheless."

Music based on one theme is monothematic while music based on several themes is polythematic. For example, most fugues are monothematic and most pieces in sonata form are polythematic. (Randel 2002, p.429).

See also

• Ritornello
• Rondo
• Theme music

References

• Michel, François (ed). (1958?61). Encyclopédie de la musique, 3 vols. Paris: Fasquelle. (Cited in Nattiez 1990.)
• Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0-691-02714-5.
• Randel, Don Michael (ed.) (1999). The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. ISBN 0-674-00978-9.
• Schoenberg, Arnold (1975). "My Evolution", in Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg,, edited by Leonard Stein, translated by Leo Black, 88. London: Faber. ISBN 0571097227

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